First I haven't DL a testversion of this latest v2023 so maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree.
I watched the filmclips on YT and twitch on this new version but couldn't see anything new on contracts, so here we go.
I always seem to complain, but I do wish this game to be the best on the market concerning managing a football team.
My wishes this time comes with contracts.
I tested version 2022 and I still don't like the DDS own formulas for contracts. I can swallow not having 7 years to offer and the restricted pick you got with backload,heavy-backload,frontload or similar, BUT
I can't figure out the bonus for one with restricted choices and the biggest issue is when you start up a new season and the contracts the recently drafted players got.
Last year I took Trevor Lawrence as a testplayer and he had about 18 millions for each of his 4 years WHAT ??? Can't see that as a rookie contract. To play this game from start and manage caprooms and such (which must be a target in this game) a rookie can't have a vet contract.
I tried out a couple of "fixed" playerfiles. One had 4 years and in that file you only have ONE salary set, in this case 9 millions. Trevor ended up having his 4 years put out as 7,8,9,10 millions for these years. Not sure how the imported of the game was programmed getting that setup, based on the 9 millions in the importing file. He actually had 660000 first years in real life. Now the bonus factor comes in hard here since that's what you use to regulate caproom. In the file I can't find any such bonus slot. In the standard file from DDS no bonus either.
Trying to go Sandbox and fix Trevor contracts just didn't work. Still only one number can be filled in and then the game calculate it's own crazy formula. It would be good to make it possible to have several spots to put numbers in for all types of contracts. My old fab game Front Office Football had spots for up to 7 years with slots for each year including bonuses. Can't be hard to program Brooks.
Conclusion is that this economic situation MUST be delt with very soon by Brooks and his gang. A manager game with totally fantasy setups in contracts will not do in my book. Heck, even Madden can do this. I know it's a monumental task for the team to put in contracts in the default roster but plenty of keen modders will sure take care of that problem when the game comes. All needed is a proper file construction and a program that can handle the import.
So my wish this time is that Brooks team put their focus on economics and salary, put in more columns in the file people can mod and make the program understand that a player with experience of 1 year should be a rookie and his contract should be as the formulas say in the setup page. It works down the line with coming seasons but it's all out of whack when you start playing and that pissses one off.
Put the man hours you got into creatig an arcade world with gamers trying to put themselves into the game and having a fantasy run at it. That is pure arcade and I believe this game is maskerading as a Football Manager game.
Did I mentioned the 5th year option for rookies. Is that working ??
Lets hope for DDS to take the next step in making it possible for us to play the game with the tools of managing contracts and caprooms, in fact the biggest thing in this type of game, isn't it ???